About

“You Are A Pirate” is a 2005 pop song about pirate adventures featured in the children’s TV series LazyTown which inspired the creation of numerous user created parodies and animations.

Origin

The song “You Are a Pirate” was introduced through the Icelandic children’s TV show LazyTown in an episode titled “Rottenbeard,” which originally aired on October 4th, 2004 (shown below).

Do what you want ’cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!

Yar – har – fiddle-dee-dee, being a pirate is all right to be!
Do what you want ’cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!

You are a pirate! (Yay!)

We got us a map (a map!) to lead us to a hidden box,
Thats all locked up with locks (with locks!) and buried deep away.
We’ll dig up the box (the box!), we know it’s full of precious booty
Burst open the locks, and then we’ll say “HOORAY!”

Yar – har – fiddle-dee-dee,
If you love to sail the sea, you are a pirate!

WEIGHANCHOR!

Yah – har – fiddle-dee-dee, being a pirate is all right to be!
Do what you want ’cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!
Arr – yarr – ahoy and avast, dig in the dirt and you dig in it fast!
Hang the black flag at the end of the mast! You are a pirate!

HA HA HA (Yay!)

We’re sailing away (set sail!), adventure waits on every shore!
We set sail and explore (ya-har!) and run and jump all day (Yay!)
We float on our boat (our boat!) until its time to drop the anchor,
Then hang up our coats (aye-aye!) until we sail again!

Yar – har – fiddle-dee-dee,
If you love to sail the sea you are a pirate!

LAND HO!

Yar – har – fiddle-dee-dee, being a pirate is alright with me!
Do what you want ’cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!
Yar har wind at your back lads, wherever you go!
Blue sky above and blue ocean below, you are a pirate!

HA HA HA!
You are a pirate!

Spread

On November 13th, 2004, YTMND user graywolf403 created a site titled “You are a pirate” featuring the cover artwork of Dina Anastasio’s children’s book “Pirates” set to the LazyTown song. On May 21st, 2006, YTMND user drunkauron created another site with the song accompanied by a photograph of a CD containing a pirated copy of the Microsoft XP operating system (shown below, right). In the first eight years, the page gained over 76,000 views and 570 up votes.

On May 30th, YouTuber Lysix uploaded a machinima video featuring several pirate characters from the popular multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft that are animated to look as if they were singing and dancing to the song from LazyTown. (shown below, left). On August 10th, 2007, YouTuber micromania666 uploaded a video titled “LOL! Limewire!”, featuring a pirate cartoon character dancing to the song in front of a flashing background (shown below, right). In the following six years, the video gathered more than 1.17 million views and 1,900 comments.

On February 20th, 2008, YouTuber Andrea Loreti uploaded a parody of the LazyTown video with footage from the 2006 epic action film 300 (shown below, left). In the next six years, the video garnered upwards of 1.18 million views and 3,100 comments. On June 20th, 2009, YouTuber Soncr7 reuploaded the original LazyTown music video,[5] which gathered more than 1 million views and 2,600 comments in five years. On January 27th, 2010, YouTuber AzfarGamers90 uploaded a Garry’s Mod remake of “You are a Pirate” with characters from the online shooter game Team Fortress 2 (shown below, right).

On May 27th, 2011, YouTuber killer1one1 uploaded a cover of “You are a Pirate” performed by the Scottish folk metal band Alestorm (shown below, left). In three years, the video gained upwards of 2.31 million views and 5,800 comments. On June 15th, YouTuber TehN1ppe uploaded a 10 hour looped version of the LOL Limewire video (shown below, right), which accumulated over 5 million views and 22,000 comments in the first three years.

On July 26th, 2013, YouTuber Fred Perry uploaded an animated version of the music video (shown below). Two days later, Redditor dethstrobe submitted the video to the /r/videos[4] subreddit. In the following two months, the YouTube video received more than 464,000 views and the Reddit post garnered upwards of 13,000 up votes.